Kane Wommack takes advice from Nick Saban to play more press coverage

Alabama football’s defensive coordinator Kane Wommack said he talked to Nick Saban during the offseason, and it led to more implementation of press coverage.

Dijon Lee told media members last week the Crimson Tide has been focusing on more press coverage.

“This season, we emphasized press-game more,” Lee said. “Definitely going to be pressing a lot more this season, so just went out there, working with coach Mo (Linguist), and it’s just been paying off.”

Wommack provided more details about this approach on Tuesday.

“But certainly there are times where you have to be able to play match coverage to be able to go win in this league,” Wommack said. “In the offseason, coach (Nick) Saban and I talk a lot. That was one thing that he brought up watching us on third downs, and I thought he had some really good points of having one or two more variations of things that we can do, right, to be able to complement some of the stuff that we’re already doing. And, you know, you look at our 3rd down numbers in the past in our history; we’ve been pretty good. I thought we were not where we needed to be. We had too many third and longs where we didn’t get off the field. And so for us, maybe having a couple more variations in things that we do, and then certainly to be a dominant defense, you’ve got to be able to go play some press and man. And that’s something that we’ve always done. We did more of it in 2024. And then last year did a little bit less for a number of reasons. But something that I hope that we’re moving back in a direction to where we feel like we can. We can do that and also play a couple variations of some matchier style coverage.”

Nick Saban hinted at the Tide needing to play more man coverage at SEC Media Days.

“So I do think if they played a little bit more deny the ball, secondary-type defense, man to man, whether it’s split safeties or middle of the field coverage, rushing four, rushing five doesn’t matter, they would be even more productive on defense,” Saban said.